White wine and fresh tarragon are what separate Hairy Bikers chicken and vegetable soup from an ordinary broth. Diced chicken thigh braises with carrot, celery, potato and leek before 750ml of stock and a splash of cream go in. Four bowls take an hour at about 350 calories each.
They write in Ultimate Comfort Food that plenty of people reckon a bowl of chicken soup cures all ills and heartbreaks, and that this recipe fits the bill. They admit there is a fair bit of chopping, then promise it is worth it once you taste the result.
The potatoes are meant to break up. By the end of the simmer they should be falling apart, and that starch is what thickens the soup, so there is no flour anywhere in the recipe and only 50ml of cream at the finish.
Hairy Bikers Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Description
Chicken thighs are browned in with the vegetables rather than separately, so nothing leaves the pan. A splash of white wine braises everything until tender before the stock arrives. Double cream finishes this Hairy Bikers chicken and vegetable soup right at the end.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Start the vegetables: Heat the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion, carrot, celery and potatoes. Cook for 10 minutes over a gentle heat, stirring regularly.
- Add the chicken: Turn the heat up and add the diced chicken. Cook until it is lightly coloured on all sides.
- Add the aromatics: Stir in the leeks, garlic and tarragon and cook for another minute.
- Braise in wine: Pour in the white wine and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, cover the pan and braise for 10 to 15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
- Add the stock: Pour over the stock and bring back to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. The potatoes should be breaking up by now.
- Finish with cream: Stir in the cream and reheat until piping hot. Serve with a little extra chopped tarragon on top.
FAQs
Why thighs rather than breast?
Thigh meat stays tender through the braise and the simmer, which is around 25 minutes of cooking in total. Breast dries out and goes stringy over that time.
Three thigh fillets diced is enough for four bowls, because the vegetables do most of the filling. Buy them boneless to save yourself the work, since the recipe wants them in pieces rather than on the bone.
Can I leave the wine out?
You can, though you lose more than you might expect. The 100ml goes in before the stock and braises the vegetables in it, so the acidity cuts through the butter at the start and the cream at the end.
Replace it with the same amount of stock plus a squeeze of lemon if you want that sharpness back. Their tarragon chicken is built on the same four things, wine, stock, tarragon and cream, served as a main course instead.
Do I have to use fresh tarragon?
It is the defining flavour here, so yes if you can get it. Four large sprigs go in during cooking and more is scattered on at the table, which is a lot of tarragon for one pan.
Dried is much weaker and slightly bitter, so use a teaspoon at most and add it early. Without tarragon at all, parsley and a little thyme give you a herby soup, though a plainer one.
How is this different from their other chicken soups?
There are thirteen across the books, so the name alone tells you very little. This one is a chunky braise finished with cream, on the table in an hour.
Their chicken noodle soup is the opposite end entirely, simmering a whole bird for four hours to build the broth before egg noodles go in. One is a quick weeknight bowl and the other is a weekend project.
Can I make it ahead?
Yes, and it improves overnight as the tarragon settles in. Stop before the cream goes in, cool it and keep it three days in the fridge.
Reheat gently and stir the cream through at the end, exactly as the recipe does. Their 40 cloves of garlic chicken works the same way, since a long slow braise always tastes better the next day.
